Compliance • ELDT.LIVE
Short-Haul Exception for CDL Drivers: 150 Air Miles, 14 Hours, and Time Records
The short-haul exception changes how qualifying drivers document hours—it does not erase the driving limits. Learn the radius, return-and-release deadline, carrier records, break rule, and what happens when a trip no longer qualifies.
Start with what the exception actually changes
The federal short-haul exception in 49 CFR 395.1(e)(1) exempts a qualifying driver from the record-of-duty-status requirements in Sections 395.8 and 395.11. In practical terms, the driver can generally use the carrier's required time-record system instead of preparing a full daily graph-grid record or ELD record of duty status. It is not a blanket exemption from hours-of-service rules, safe-driving duties, vehicle requirements, licensing, drug-and-alcohol rules, or carrier supervision. The trip must satisfy every condition of the exception for the exemption to apply.
Measure 150 air miles from the normal reporting location
The driver must operate within a 150-air-mile radius of the normal work reporting location. The regulation states that 150 air miles equal 172.6 statute miles. This is a geographic radius—a straight-line boundary around the reporting point—not 150 odometer miles and not 150 route miles. A legal route can be much longer than the straight-line distance while remaining inside the circle, and a short route can leave the circle. Carriers should map the boundary from the correct reporting location and check every stop, detour, yard, and customer against it.
Use the real normal work reporting location
The radius is tied to the driver's normal work reporting location, not automatically to the carrier's headquarters, the load's origin, the driver's home, or the nearest terminal. Dispatch and compliance records should identify the location where the driver normally reports for work for that operation. When a driver is assigned to a different terminal or temporary reporting point, the carrier should determine and document which location applies before relying on the exception. Moving the center point after a trip has begun is not a safe substitute for a compliant plan.
Return and release must both occur within 14 hours
Except for a driver-salesperson covered by the rule's wording, the driver must return to the normal work reporting location and be released from work within 14 consecutive hours. Merely driving back through the gate before the deadline is not enough if fueling, inspection, paperwork, unloading, maintenance reporting, or another required task keeps the driver on duty beyond the 14th hour. The clock is consecutive: a meal, wait at a dock, breakdown, or other off-duty period during the tour does not move the deadline.
Required off-duty time separates duty tours
For a property-carrying CMV driver using Section 395.1(e)(1), at least 10 consecutive hours off duty must separate each 14-hour on-duty period. For a passenger-carrying CMV driver, the rule specifies at least 8 consecutive hours off duty. A driver should not mix the property and passenger standards or assume that a short route reduces the required reset. Confirm which operation applies, record the actual release and next report times, and resolve any overlapping work for another employer or motor carrier.
The 11-hour driving limit still matters
A property-carrying short-haul driver remains subject to the 11-hour driving limit in Section 395.3. After at least 10 consecutive hours off duty, the driver may drive no more than 11 total hours within the qualifying 14-hour tour. Loading, inspection, fueling, waiting, paperwork, and other on-duty work reduce the practical time available before the 14-hour return-and-release deadline even though they are not all driving. A local route with many stops can exhaust the duty window long before the odometer suggests a long day.
The 60/70-hour limit still applies
Short-haul drivers are not excused from the cumulative limit merely because they return home daily. Under Section 395.3, a property-carrying driver may not drive after 60 on-duty hours in seven consecutive days when the carrier does not operate CMVs every day of the week, or after 70 on-duty hours in eight consecutive days when it does. Every on-duty hour counts toward the applicable total, including nondriving work. The carrier's time system must support a reliable rolling calculation before dispatch.
Qualifying short-haul drivers have a break exception
Section 395.3(a)(3)(ii) says the 30-minute interruption after eight cumulative driving hours does not apply to drivers who qualify for either short-haul exception in Section 395.1(e)(1) or (2). That exception exists only while the driver qualifies. It does not authorize driving while fatigued, ill, or unsafe, and it does not prohibit an employer from scheduling breaks or a driver from taking needed rest. If the planned operation will not qualify as short haul, the carrier must account for the ordinary break rule when it applies.
The carrier must keep true time records for six months
The simplified system is still a federal recordkeeping system. For each qualifying driver, the motor carrier must maintain accurate and true records showing the time the driver reports for duty each day, the total number of on-duty hours that day, and the time the driver is released from duty. The carrier must retain those records for six months. A payroll total that omits unpaid on-duty work, rounds away inspection time, or records only scheduled hours may not capture the facts the regulation requires.
First-time and intermittent drivers require a seven-day total
For a driver used for the first time or intermittently, the carrier's record must also show the total time for the preceding seven days in accordance with Section 395.8(j)(2). This protects the rolling 60/70-hour calculation when the carrier cannot assume the driver was off duty before the first shift. Orientation should collect prior on-duty time before dispatch, including compensated work for another motor carrier and other work that counts as on duty. Do not treat a new payroll profile as proof of a clear HOS history.
Accurate time matters more than the device used
A time clock, dispatch platform, mobile app, spreadsheet, or another system may support short-haul records, but the system must preserve the required facts accurately. Drivers should report actual start, total on-duty time, and actual release rather than a scheduled shift. Carriers should define how inspections, loading, waiting, fueling, paperwork, yard moves, training, and post-trip tasks are captured. The exception replaces a particular daily RODS requirement; it does not allow unrecorded work or false time entries.
Plan for the day that stops qualifying
A traffic diversion, added customer, rescue assignment, breakdown, weather delay, or extended dock wait can push the operation outside the radius or beyond the return-and-release deadline. Once the driver cannot satisfy every short-haul condition, the carrier and driver need a written transition procedure for completing the required record of duty status and using an ELD when applicable. Do not wait until a roadside inspection to reconstruct the day. Record the change when it occurs and preserve the earlier duty and driving information.
Occasional RODS days do not automatically require an ELD
Section 395.8 permits manual records instead of an ELD when a driver operates in a manner requiring a record of duty status on no more than eight days within any 30-day period, assuming no other ELD exception or requirement changes the result. This is a separate test from the short-haul exception. A ninth RODS-required day can change the equipment obligation. Carriers should track the rolling 30-day count and train drivers on the approved paper-log process before an unexpected nonqualifying trip occurs.
Do not confuse short haul with the 16-hour exception
Section 395.1(o) contains a separate, limited provision that can extend the property-carrying driver's driving window to the 16th hour when specific return-to-location and prior-duty-tour conditions are met and the exception has not been used too recently. It does not extend the 11-hour driving limit. Relying on the 150-air-mile short-haul exception does not automatically grant a 16-hour day, and using the 16-hour provision does not repair a route that left the short-haul radius. Apply each provision independently and document the facts.
Use a dispatch checklist before every local tour
Confirm the driver's normal reporting location; plot every planned stop inside the 150-air-mile radius; estimate driving and all nondriving work; schedule return and full release before 14 consecutive hours; verify the preceding 10 hours off duty for a property-carrying driver; check available 11-hour and 60/70-hour capacity; confirm the carrier's time-record method; and identify the contingency if the trip stops qualifying. Repeat the check when dispatch adds a stop, changes the terminal, or sends the driver beyond the planned service area.
Practice a realistic exception-loss scenario
A driver reports at 6:00 a.m. for a local route expected to finish at 4:00 p.m. At noon, dispatch adds a pickup outside the mapped radius, and heavy traffic threatens a return after 8:00 p.m. The correct response is not to rename the pickup as local. The trainee should identify which short-haul conditions will fail, calculate the remaining 11-hour and 14-hour limits, determine whether the 30-minute break rule now matters, start the required duty-status record, and communicate a compliant alternative before accepting the change.
Use one final short-haul test
A qualifying day requires the correct normal work reporting location, operation entirely within 150 air miles, return to that location, release within 14 consecutive hours, the applicable consecutive off-duty period, compliant driving and cumulative hours, and accurate carrier time records retained for six months. If any condition is uncertain, treat the trip as needing review before dispatch rather than assuming the exception. This guide reflects Title 49 eCFR text displayed as current through September 28, 2026; State rules and operation-specific exceptions can add or change obligations.
Educational summaries help you prepare, but official FMCSA and state licensing sources remain the authority for current requirements.
Official sources
49 CFR 395.1 — Scope and short-haul operations ↗49 CFR 395.3 — Maximum driving time for property-carrying vehicles ↗49 CFR 395.8 — Driver's record of duty status ↗FMCSA — Summary of Hours of Service Regulations ↗ELDT.live independently creates and reviews its content. We do not present practice questions as official examination questions and do not guarantee a licensing result.